halfjack

ok. sorry gang, but i'm fired up right now. i need to rant. i need a soapbox. lend me your ears. than throw tomatoes at me afterward for all i care.

i am a feminist. i have been since as long as i can remember and i probably always will be. i was raised by a single mother who was subjected to some of the worst things that can happen to a women, and some things just because she was a woman. part of my maturation process was watching not only how the world affected me, but also my mother. people say well you're not a woman or you're not you're mother so you'll never know and i say hey, you don't understand how close we were and how there was nothing that she felt that i didn't. and i say hey, shut up. cuz she went through shit that you winers will never have to go through.
i am so tired of so many modern day feminists have have simply resorted to bitching about problems in the patriarchal society and apperently being furious about it, but not furious about it enough to actually do something about and be content to just bitching about. and on the internet, for god's sake.

does it bother you that society says you can't do something? THEN GO DO IT. or die trying. take down the house. master's tools, remember? and while you're at it, use your tools. stop bitching about what parts of your body make it hard to walk down the street or live your life the way you want to and start realizing that your tits and womb and brains and lips and everything that you are makes you beautiful and powerful. you complain about worrying about pregnancy and forget that your uterus CONTINUES HUMAN LIFE. in that small space life forms and is protected. you are the carriers of life and you treat it as a burden. do you know how amazing that is? how lucky you are?

ah see but then you'll say well we're tired of being heralded as just the nurterer. i want to be a lawyer. i want to go to school. i want to be a police officer. well? then do it. go and do what you want to. i am not holding you back. someone else might be, but if you concentrate on the person standing in your way, than you are just practicing self-defeating behavior. concentrate on the goal at hand, and the obstacles will disapear from view. not from reality, of course. i'm not saying the obstacles aren't their and firmly rooted, but somewhere along the way a lot of feminists (and i'm really not trying to say all of them, simply the ones that seem to be making the most noise right now) stopped examing the roots or chopping at them or trying to step over them. now there's a campsite there with picket signs and tofu and non stop chattering where words like patriarchal and construct and male and female and society are used so much that they cease to be words and turn into meaningless cricket chirping. we have lost our way.

and stop alienating men. feminism has nothing to do with giving the middle finger to half of the world's population. it's equality we want, not a war.

i have seen progress in my lifetime. i am blessed for that. so are you. it means we have more responsibility now. because we know things can change, we cannot simply throw up our hands and say that things will never change. you have more power than you give yourself credit for. there is a difference between talking about your experiences as a human being or a female and spouting off stereotypical gender rules and therefore empowering the rules, instead of yourselves. you are making a mockery of being a female by just identifying the ridiculous expectations. "i am a woman so i can't do this or that" maybe it's just me, but i think you'll have more luck with "i am a woman so i CAN do this" or "i am a woman and that alone makes me beautiful"

i will end this rant that makes me sound like i know what i'm doing with someone who did. marge piercy.

"The woman in the
ordinary pudgy graduate student girl
is crouching with eyes and muscles clenched.
Round and smooth as a pebble
you efface yourself
under ripples of conversation and debate.
The woman in the block of ivory soap
has massive thighs that neigh
and great breasts and strong arms that blare and trumpet.
The woman of the golden fleece
laughs from the belly uproariously
inside the girl who imitates
a Christmas card virgin with glued hands.
It is time to bust out of girlscout camp.
It is time to stop running
for most popular sweetheart of Cambell Soup.
You are still searching for yourself in others' eyes
and creeping so you won't be punished.
In you bottled up is a woman peppery as curry,
a yam of a woman of butter and brass,
compounded of acid and sweet like a pineapple,
like a hand grenade set to explode,
like goldenrod ready to bloom."




thanks if you got this far.